The Tuckasegee River System tributaries map is available for viewing. It covers the Carolina side of park from Forney Creek on the west to Straight Fork on the east. More details being added. Please keep checking back.

2-15-2012 Update: Deleted map image & link previously posted.

11-18-2009 UPDATE: The original map depicted below has been replaced by the Oconaluftee map and the new Tuckasegee map which includes from Forney Creek on the west to Cooper Creek on the east and their feeder streams.

JoeFred--Just took a quick peek at your Tuckasegee drainage map and noticed a couple of omissions. I'm not sure what source(s) of information you are using to devleop the maps, and the omissions are fairly recent in nature. There are now two designated backcountry campsites in the Indian Creek (feeder of Deep creek) drainage. The one of the greatest interest to fishermen is situated at what is locally known as the turnaround (i. e., where the Park's gravel road up Indian Creek ends and where the trail over the the Bryson Place takes off). Virtually no one fishes Indian Creek these days, and to a considerable degree that's understandable. Much of it is badly overgrown. Yet this was Mark Cathey's home water and it was also where I spent most of the formative stages of my development as a fly fisherman.

One other thought, and the logistics of this may make it a non-starter. Is there any chance of including topo lines in the maps? For any fisherman who enjoys bushwhacking or really remote places, there's no better way to get a pretty good idea of how rough the going will be. Jim Casada

...a couple of omissions...there are now two designated backcountry campsites in the Indian Creek (feeder of Deep creek) drainage....The one of the greatest interest to fishermen is situated at what is locally known as the turnaround (i. e., where the Park's gravel road up Indian Creek ends and where the trail over the the Bryson Place takes off). Virtually no one fishes Indian Creek these days, and to a considerable degree that's understandable. Much of it is badly overgrown. Yet this was Mark Cathey's home water and it was also where I spent most of the formative stages of my development as a fly fisherman.

One other thought, and the logistics of this may make it a non-starter. Is there any chance of including topo lines in the maps?...Jim Casada

Jim, many thanks for pointing out the missing campsites and for sharing about yours and Mark's stomping grounds. I added Nos 46, 51 & 57. Locations are roughly those shown on the online park GSM Trail Map. (Please suggest any needed tweaking.)

Regarding topo lines... I added my version of such to Indian Creek. When it came to deciding how to do topos, you could say I was "all over the map" . I've gone with showing the 3000 ft contour throughout plus 200 ft elevation increments at their intersections with selected streams. Clearly Indian Creek qualifies.

2/15 Update: Deleted map image previously posted.

In general the TR map is very preliminary. I will be adding more detail to the other streams as time permits, and in an order that seems most useful to members of this board like yourself.

JoeFred--Thanks, and the locations of the campsites look about right to me. As for the approach topo-wise, it is an interesting one. My brother, Don, who has all the technical skills in the family, takes a somewhat similar tactic in a whole bunch of graphs which will be part of my book. It's a bit difficult to explain in words (one of those things better seen than explained) but he does graphs of each stream which show the change in elevation over a given number of miles. The number of miles depends on the length of the stream. The graphs also include waypoints such as campsites, trail crossings, and feeder creeks. There's an entire appendix, with dozens of color graphs, devoted to this. More than anything else, the graphs tell the reader just how rough a stream (or section of stream) might be. Generally speaking, those on the Tennessee side tend to be rougher in their headwaters, but I personally would classify the middle section (gorge) of Raven Fork as the single roughest place in the entire Park. Jim Casada

Jason--Fret not--I can lurk because the book is finished and in the hands of a printer. I looked at dust jacket and cover material today. If all goes well the book will be out in late August or early September (although I've had enough experience with publishers to know that counting on things going well is sort of like figuring on a heavy hatch every time you fish a Smokies' stream).
Glad you enjoyed my presentations and the Charlotte show. I'll be there again next year (I think that will mark 10 years in a row), and you can rest assured that streams of the Smokies will be one of my seminar topics. Jim Casada

...graphs of each stream which show the change in elevation over a given number of miles. The number of miles depends on the length of the stream. The graphs also include waypoints such as campsites, trail crossings, and feeder creeks...

Jim, the graphs should be an amazingly good resource. Sounds as though you and Don have done a lot of planning. Can't wait!!

Considerable additions have been made to the Tuckasegee system map. Still to be added: topos, landmarks and more. Map is still preliminary at this stage so there may still be typos and worse.

11-18-2009 UPDATE: The original Tuckasegee map has been replaced by the Oconaluftee map and the new Tuckasegee map which includes from Forney Creek on the west to Cooper Creek on the east and their feeder streams.

TIP: Although printing this entire map (for free) using Acrobat is not an option, you can zoom in and print specific portions of the map at pretty good quality by cutting (using Alt-Print Screen on the PC) the Acrobat window and then pasting into WordPad, your word processor, etc. The print results you get will depend on a number of factors including the extent of the area selected, screen resolution setting, document orientation and margin sizes.

JoeFred--Really nice job. One question correction and one thought. Unless local lore and place names have it all wrong, the stream you show as Hyatt Branch on lower Noland Creek is Luarel Branch. I don't have my collection of topo maps with me (I'm at my father's home in Bryson City), but I've always known that stream as Laurel Branch (it holds trout). I don't know that it is readily feasible, but a long-range project you might want to consider is showing which streams hold trout and are fishable. You could have some kind of rating system for fishability such as "bow-and-arrow backbreakers," "wide open," "tight," etc. Similarly, you could show which species the stream holds. I take appreciable steps, in words, in that direction in my forthcoming book, but I hadn't given it much thought, map-wise, until now. I'm not very savvy technology-wise, but I do recognize the fact that maps, properly used and with background knowledge underlying them, can be among an angler's finest friends. Anyway, keep up the fine work. Jim Casada